New Poetry: Rebel Blood Cells
Jamie Woods' debut poetry collection explores the nuances of his own fight against Leukaemia in 2019.
In a new article you can read in full here, poet (and erstwhile Wales Arts Review contributor) Jamie Woods explores his own debut poetry collection Rebel Blood Cells, a sequence that seeks to unearth the nuances of his own experiences being diagnosed with leukaemia in 2019.
Here is one of the poems from the collection.
BLUE PETER BRING AND BUY SALE 1987
I always thought that Leukaemia was a children’s illness
I never knew that adults could get it
I didn’t know that it was a type of cancer
until I
I thought it was just one of those things
like Great Ormond Street or Kampuchea
that we raised money for with Blue Peter Bring and Buy sales
in the school hall when we were ten
and you’d buy a second-hand calculator for 20p
and play with it the next day, upside-down
writing 71077345 and 5318008 while Janet and Peter and Simon
explain why our efforts are so important
and show how high up the totaliser we’ve got to
but forgetting it all when Neighbours came on straight after
and I really wish I had paid more attention
and I wish I’d brought and bought more things.
Rebel Blood Cells is available now from Punk Dust Poetry. All author and publisher proceeds from the sale ofRebel Blood Cells are being donated to Leukaemia Care UK.
REBEL – an online poetry event for Leukaemia Care is the launch party for the book on 17th August. Join Jamie in reading on the night is an all-star bill of poets: Rachel Carney, Mari Ellis Dunning, Bethany Handley, Natalie Ann Holborow, Phil Jones, Andy N, Dean Rhetoric, Tracey Rhys, JP Seabright; and a Black Bough open mic hosted by Matthew M.C. Smith. Tickets are available from here. Again, all proceeds to charity.